Registration for St. Tammany Parish's new virtual classroom program for middle school students is currently underway. The online learning program for 6th, 7th and 8th graders has spots for 200 students.

The online, "virtual classroom'' is aimed at reaching home-schooled students, the district has said. The students will take courses online, but will be counted as district students. Students will fire up their computers for lessons, discussions with teachers, grades, maybe even face-to-face meetings through Skype or other video conferencing programs, district officials have said.

Classes will begin in September. The virtual classroom program is a pilot and could be expanded at some point.